#1 – Tornado Alley and Wandering Deserts

More than a million people live along the motorway I-44 in the US, which connects the capital of the state of Oklahoma, with its second largest city - Tulsa. Each spring, when cool and dry air from the mountains down into the valley and meets with warm moist air from the ocean, along I-44 there are devastating vortices. Since 1890, Oklahoma City and its environs were attacked by a tornado more than 120 times. In May 1999, 70 vortices immediately passed through Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas, and the most destructive of them swept through Oklahoma City, destroying 1,700 homes, damaged more than 6,500 buildings and killing more than 40 people.

The once fertile oasis of Minqin is experiencing a very tough time, being squeezed between the deserts. Ten-year drought and the disappearance of the rivers led to the fact that sands are rapidly approaching the region from south-east and north-west. In total, since 1950 Desert has swallowed up more than 160 square kilometers, while the number of local population rose from 860,000 to more than two million people over the same period. Vast desert approaches to people at a speed of about 10 meters per year, reducing the area of arable land by six times.